If you don’t follow dashboard trends, you should. Car dashboards are omnipresent, and no one should ignore them. How can you increase the likelihood that people will pay attention to your company reports, i.e., dashboards?
They have been known since the Middle Ages. A dashboard was a piece of wood, leather, or cloth attached between the harnessed animals and the carriage or cart crew. It served as protection against mud, rocks, and splashing organic secretions.
The intuitive clarity of dashboards in cars of the new age is imperative. There is no room for assembly drifts, lengthy evaluations, or misinterpretations since our lives depend on them when driving. Moreover, taking lessons in the office sphere does not hurt.
Real-Time Speedometer
In our example, the necessary parameters will be speed, rotations, and energy source status, regardless of the brand, type, and year. While driving, red flags don’t require our attention until an abnormality needs to be addressed.
Without the possibility of feedback and its translation into action, reports become unhelpful formalities. The speedometer responds to the driver’s heavier or lighter pressure on the pedal in real time. Can you imagine it would not happen immediately or even at all?
Wide Range of Footwear
People rightly pay attention only to what interests them, encompasses them, and moves them forward. Perhaps the most common mistake is the ambition to create a dashboard for everyone. In fact, it would be for no one.
The average size of a man’s foot worldwide is 43 – 46, depending on the region, and for women’s, 37.5 – 38.5. However, it would be absurd and literally impassable if they only had such an assortment in shoe stores.
Music for a Monotonous Journey
Okay, but what about the passengers when talking about our visuals? They can see information about the car’s speed, but they cannot directly influence it. That is why it is necessary to identify homogeneous groups of recipients when creating dashboards and to act as precisely as possible.
The customer support department is more likely to mobilize retention data than master numbers for the entire company. When passengers perceive the road as monotonous, they can benefit from choosing more lively music, starting a stimulating debate, or adjusting the rest stop schedule.
The Reality Decides
Static sections within dashboards designed for every day or even more frequent use only occupy space, confuse, and discourage. The more timeless picture, of course, has its justification, but it does not belong to the reports capturing dynamic processes.
Do not use idle metrics. They usually look more beautiful than their alternatives but don’t lead anywhere. Embellishments only work temporarily; reality will decide after all. It is fairer and more beneficial to map signals with an actual signal value, including the less flattering ones.
Yes, the data can be disturbing at times. However, this is what the dashboard is for. It should objectively, promptly, and clearly tell you how your business is doing. Or would you sit in a car that didn’t show you speeding?
Rule 60-30-10
Originality at all costs is counterproductive. Let’s get back behind the wheel: you’d hardly appreciate square tires. When creating dashboards, you are not making a new artistic form but supporting an effective business. Therefore, it is better to respect behavioral studies, surveys, and color psychology knowledge.
Interior designers, fashion designers, or makeup artists divide the whole according to the 60-30-10 basal rule. In the above ratio, they fill it with a central, secondary, and vivid color. We can illustrate this in men’s clothing: 60% belongs to a suit, 30% to a shirt, and 10% to a tie or bow tie.
Text: Miki Kočan ml., photo: unsplash.com
